How to register for the Minet Teachers’ Cover

Last month my son and I were admitted in hospital. It was a really scary experience on how we got to the point of admission. Thankfully, he recovered very fast and in 2 days we were discharged and back home. During the discharge process is when we realized we had not added him to our NHIF cover as a dependent. And so once we were back home my husband went to the NHIF office with the baby’s birth certificate and had him added onto the cover.

It made me think, in this era of technology and simplifying processes, how easy was it to register for the cover you have? What of when you need to add a dependent? Most insurance companies have made this process easy. When under group cover – where the employer gets same cover for all staff members – the process most times involves writing an email to the contact person at the insurance company and soon after the changes you needed are made.

What about these covers that involve masses? What about someone for whom email is not as easy as it for us? I am talking about covers like NHIF and the Minet Cover for teachers. I have written extensively on the Minet cover for TSC teachers so I have also received questions on how to enroll for it. Here is how to register for the Minet Teachers’ Cover.

All teachers in active service with Teachers’ Service Commission (TSC) are automatically eligible for cover. The principal member is, however, required to register themselves and their dependents.

The registration process is done in two steps:

Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) registration

Biometric registration.

Let’s start with USSD registration:

Principal Member Registration

First you ensure you have the below mandatory details:

TSC Number

ID Number

Step 1: Dial *865# from your Safaricom or Airtel mobile phone number

Step 2: Key in your TSC and National ID Numbers when prompted. The details will be verified against

our database

Step 3: If successful, you will be prompted to enter your name (surname and other name), role and gender

Once done, you will receive a message confirming your successful registration onto the scheme and a prompt to register your dependents.

Dependents Registration

Step 1: Dial *865# from your Safaricom or Airtel mobile phone number

Step 2: Select the dependent you wish to register, i.e. spouse or child

Once you have gone through these steps it’s now time to do the biometric registration. Biometric registration is registering your finger prints and is done at the service provider’s premises (hospital) and follows the steps below:

Step 1: Present yourself at the service provider on our active panel (you can access the list of active providers by dialing *340#)

Step 2: Identify yourself or your dependent with the TSC number

Step 3: The service provider (hospital) will generate an SMS that contains the One-Time-Pin (OTP), sent to the principal member’s mobile number

Step 4: You will present this OTP to the service provider representative to kickstart the fingerprint registration

Step 5: You will be requested to place your index finger and thumb on the biometric device and the impressions will be recorded against your membership record

Note: Children under 5 years of age will be registered under either the parent or an appointed guardian.

I would like to know what is the registration process for other insurance companies. How easy was it to register for the cover you have?

I am Wanjiru Kihusa and I’m a writer and founder of Still A Mum – an organization that seeks to reduce maternal and newborn deaths in Africa. I am especially passionate about women and children.
I blog to share my thoughts and experiences hoping that in the process someone will learn from my life.